Longtime Pahoa store to close after 75 years

November 5, 2013

HILO (AP) - News that a longtime Pahoa store will close after 75 years in business is making community members nostalgic.

Pahoa Cash & Carry announced that it will be closing Nov. 15. A closeout sale will include the store's shelves, cash register and flatbed truck, said General Manager Dennis Kitsman, who posted about the closure on Facebook on Friday.

"Thanks for your support and friendship throughout the years. Aloha and a hui hou," Kitsman wrote.

The store is a throwback to an era when sugar was king. It retained an old-school general store feel that survived despite chain stores, Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

Customers have been sharing memories about the mom-and-pop store. Suzanne Case is a former Big Island resident now living in Illinois. She posted that the closure is "like the death of a longtime friend."

"Originally, when we first got here, this place had hardware, clothes, lots of fishing stuff, all kinds of items. You could get anything," said Michael O'Shaughnessy of Kalapana. "I'd tried to get as much of my shopping as possible done here just to keep them going, but nowadays, you could come in and see only two or three people."